Tell Us A Tale Bilingual Storybook Project:
Celebrating Community Language Schools Through Stories
This project celebrates the languages, stories and cultural traditions of NSW community language schools. 20 teachers and 180 students from 10 community language schools across Sydney and the Illawarra worked together to adapt culturally significant stories for a new generation of young readers. Students explored the stories in their community languages, discussed their cultural meanings, and created the original artwork that brings each story to life.
The result is a collection of ten professionally designed bilingual children’s books in nine community languages and English. The illustrations were showcased in a special exhibition at Wollongong Art Gallery in May 2026 (click HERE to see a short video of our opening event) and the completed books were celebrated with families, schools and community members at a community launch at Campbelltown Library in July 2026.
Teaching and learning resources to accompany the books will be available here soon, helping community language teachers use the stories to build language, literacy, speaking and cultural learning in their classrooms.
Click on the books below to read the free digital editions.
Sina and the Eel
Samoan/ English
The Golden Apple and
the Nine Peahens
Bosnian/English
Princess Tandampalik and
the White Buffalo
Indonesian/English
The Ant and the Grasshopper
Arabic/English
The Magic Pot
Chinese/English
Bonbibi of the Sundarbans
Bangla/English
Nüwa Mends the Sky
Chinese/English
The Legend of Bánh Chưng and Bánh Dày
Vietnamese/English
Athens: A Name with a Story
Greek/English
The Clever Old Lady and
Her Walking Talking Pumpkin
Marathi/English
Special thanks to the principals, teachers, students and families of the participating community language schools: Pelangi Indonesia Language School; Holy Cross Greek Language
School; Vietnamese Community in Wollongong Language School; Whalesong Education Chinese Language School; Al Habib Arabic Language School; SCCALA Samoan Language School; Shanhe Education Chinese Language School; Bangla School, Bardia; Bosnian Ethnic School; Australian Marathi Vidyalaya.
Tell Us a Tale was made possible with support from Multicultural NSW, the Department of Home Affairs and the NSW Department of Education Community Languages Schools Program (CLSP).